In the 2008 game Braid, the player is introduced to a series of puzzles throughout gameplay, some of which are required to continue the narrative, and some of which are optional but rewarded with a puzzle piece. Each puzzle comes featured with a title, sometimes referencing popular culture (World 2-3, Monster Hunt), other times referencing features of the puzzle's stage itself (World 2-2, The Cloud Bridge). Each title of the puzzles cues the player into how they should go about solving the puzzle, whether they should hunt down the monsters, or use the cloud bridge.
In the second world of Braid, there is a puzzle titled 'Leap of Faith'. 'Leap of faith' is not an unusual term - politicians and startup entrepreneurs ask us to perform this when pitching for our support (usually translating faith to dollars in these cases). It is a dynamic, soaring phrase that hinges upon belief and trust. This jump has been incorporated into video games as well, even featuring prominently as a key mechanic in UbiSoft's Assassin's Creed series, wherein the leap hinges upon the trust that you will tumble from improbably tall heights safely into a conveniently placed haystack (though, in some misaimed cases, you are subject to the horror of bystanding peasants).
The puzzle titled 'Leap of Faith' in Braid primes the player to anticipate some form of plunge. Indeed, the leap appears towards the end of the stage, and as encouraged by the player's previous understandings of the leap of faith, they willingly jump off the platform edge into the unknown without hesitation, expecting to have completed their task, and to land safely as reward for their trust.
Only to plunge into a platform of spikes.
In the early stages of Braid, and with the introduction of the time reversal mechanism, there is little sense of consequence. A player can rewind time freely and repeat their fall. But in that split moment between the player's realization of their mistake and the character's inconsequential 'death', the player feels a sense of betrayal. The leap of faith was a plunge to the death, not to the safe landing or reward as assumed.
Of course, the player can rewind time, and retake the leap of faith. But this leap of faith is no longer a leap of faith. There is no trust remaining in this action. The concept of the leap of faith hinges on one's belief that, though the outcome is unknown, they will land safely, and as discovered in the first attempt, this outcome is not true. By rewinding time and retaking the fall, the player approaches the next attempt with caution and hesitation, with the knowledge that letting themselves fall along the natural, unaffected trajectory will result in 'death'. Instead, the player cannot rely solely on their belief and trust of the game's natural ways, and instead must force themselves out of the natural trajectory for self preservation.
The player's decision to remove the character from the natural trajectory of the freefall and the direction they choose to take is indicative of the now damaged trust between player and game. The player can choose to go right, moving in the 'forward' direction of the side-scrolling game, and continue to the end of the stage. However, if they choose to go left, the player moves 'back', retreating into an alcove to retrieve a puzzle piece as their reward. The decision to go backwards, for the sake of a puzzle piece, is also indicative of the player's need to retreat in the physical space of the game, tying in with the player's need to regress time, in order to complete the puzzle. But while this kind of moving back and forth within time and space are normal throughout the game, within in the context of the 'Leap of Faith' puzzle, they can also be tied to the player's regression of trust as shattered by this 'leap of faith'.
(Note: This *too close?* reading was partially out of my own sense of betrayal and frustration at my own naive stupidity.)
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